Perth

Perth Inner Suburbs

Marginal Labor 5.9%

MP

The retiring Labor MP is Stephen Smith who has held this seat since 1993. Smith announced his intention to retire after Kevin Rudd was re-elected Labor Leader, but agreed to continue as Minister for Defence until the election.

Profile

The electorate of Perth stretches along the northern shore of the Swan River from the Narrows Bridge to Bassendean, generally bounded by the Reid Highway in the north and Alexander Drive in the west. it includes the Perth CBD and adjacent suburbs to the north and north-east, including Northbridge, Mount Lawley, Maylands, Morley, Noranda, Lockridge and Beechboro. Covers 78 sq.km. (Map)

Background

Perth has existed since Federation and in that time has changed boundaries frequently and been represented by both sides of politics. It has been represented by two famous fathers, Brian Burke's father Tom (1943-55) and Fred Chaney Senior (1955-69). Other former members include Joe Berinson (1969-75) who later entered state Parliament and served as Attorney-General, and former state cricket and national hockey captain, Dr Ric Charlesworth (1983-93).

2011 Census Profile

At 30.8% Perth has Western Australia's highest proportion of single person dwellings, the nation's tenth highest overall.

Past Electoral Boundaries

Past Voting Patterns

Over the last three decades there has been a widening gap between Labor's vote in Perth and in Western Australia as a whole. The graph below has both lines swinging in the same direction at most elections, but the gap between the two lines has steadily grown. The seat has been held by Stephen Smith since 1993, so this gap represents either slow demographic change in Labor's favour, or perhaps a significant personal vote for Smith.

2013 Ballot Paper (8 Candidates)

Candidate Name

Party

CONNELLY, Paul Michael

Australian Christians

CLARK, Ant

Independent

MacTIERNAN, Alannah

Australian Labor Party

HALLETT, Jonathan

The Greens (WA)

EDNEY, Evelyn Patricia

Rise Up Australia Party

CROLL, Lesley

Family First Party

HARFOUCHE, Gabriel Hasib

Palmer United Party

MOORE, Darryl

Liberal

Candidates

Paul Michael Connelly

Australian Christians

Contested this seat at the 2010 Federal election as a Christian Democrat candidate, and has also contested the state seat of Perth at the last two Western Australian elections.

Ant Clark

Independent

Clark spent his formative years living in Indonesia and New Zealand, settling in Australia in 1985. Studying travel and tourism paved the way for a career in the travel industry where he enjoyed sales, training, and account management roles with travel agency and airline companies. Since 2004 Clark has worked with international development organisations including Oxfam Australia and TEAR Australia. He is currently WA Donor Relations Manager for a well-established sustainable community development non-profit.

Alannah MacTiernan

Australian Labor Party

60 year-old MacTiernan was first elected to the WA Parliament as an MLC for East Metropolitan Region in 1993, winning election to the lower house as MLA for Armadale at the 1996 election. A commercial lawyer and local community newspaper editor before election to Parliament, MacTiernan had a considerable profile as Minister for Planning and Infrastructure through two terms of the WA Labor government. In that time MacTiernan was responsible for the building of the Mandurah railway. MacTiernan resigned from state Parliament to contest Canning at the 2010 Federal election, her personal vote revealed by Canning swinging towards Labor against the trend elsewhere in Western Australia. In October 2011 she was elected Mayor of the inner-Perth City of Vincent council.

Jonathan Hallett

The Greens (WA)

Hallett is a Lecturer and Research Fellow at Curtin University's School of Public Health. He is also Deputy Chairperson of the Board of Management for the WA AIDS Council. Hallett was the Greens candidate in Perth at the 2010 Federal election and the state seat of Perth at this year's Western Australian election.

Evelyn Patricia Edney

Gabriel Hasib Harfouche

Darryl Moore

Liberal

43 year-old Moore was born in Geraldton but raised in Perth. He studied Metallurgy and Mining Engineering up at the School of Mines in Kalgoorlie before transferring to Sydney where completed a Bachelors Degree in Petroleum Engineering with honours. He spent the first four years after university in the deserts of South Australia and Queensland getting to know the mining industry from the ground up. Following a short stint overseas in Oman working for an Australian drilling company, he decided to return home to Perth with his a young family and worked in the WA mining industry before branching out in 2009 to pursue his other passion of investing in and managing the familys commercial and industrial real estate portfolio.